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Take the worst or grimmest and darkest side of society, give them a place where all their sins are given free roam to be expressed, and collect it into a system that can just barely sustain itself and you get the Wretched Hive.

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In many cases, the economy is no better. If this is true, facilities are usually falling apart, and the subways and buses are often full of crooks and junkies. And they're always late. Any schools in this place will almost inevitably be impoverished or sadistic. The roads may be cracked and broken, with a Trashcan Bonfire ever fifty feet or so. Many buildings have been abandoned, to be occupied by vermin, hobos, or criminals. Decent jobs are few and far between. Housing (if you can get it) is unsafe, filthy, and overcrowded. In short, poverty is the norm, not the exception.

However, prosperous and affluent settings can also qualify as this trope. While people are more likely to be in decent financial shape, don't expect things to be any better in terms of morality. At most, there's a pleasant façade to conceal the rot within. Sleazy, immoral decadence is frequently rife, and may not even be particularly hidden — if it is at all. Non-impoverished examples are arguably worse, ethically and morally speaking, since the inhabitants don't have deprivation as an explanation for the things they do.

Bad-Guy BarA tavern of ill repute where the crooks get together to scheme or get a drink. The tenuous peace is only held together by The Bartender and his Bouncers. Bar room brawls and aggressive drunks optional.

The City NarrowsThe back alley to the entire town; a small section of a city that has a bad name for a good reason and gets avoided by decent folk with any sense.

Red Light DistrictA street, block, or even complete district of a city devoted to prostitution and other illicit trades.

Outlaw TownA settlement run by criminals, for the benefit of criminals.

Dying TownA town or city whose reason for existence disappeared a long time ago and left behind those who couldn't get out; when you have a lot of poor, desperate people in the same place, some of them will inevitably turn to crime, and that same desperation will also bring plenty of other social problems.

Not-So-Safe HarborA port, harbour or coastal town that has fallen into wretchedness due to the flux of sailors and pirates and the sort of rough entertainment they desire.

Vice CityAn entire urban sprawl that has fallen to wretchedness including its authorities which provide little sense of escape but also little constraint. Often overlaps with City Noir.

If an example fits into one of the more specific subtropes better, please list it there, rather than on this page.

Titan, the official setting for the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, has a couple of these. The most notorious are Port Blacksand, well-known as the City of Thieves, and Khare, called the Cityport of Traps. One is a ramshackle collection of pirates, thieves and murderers who'd slit their mothers' throats for a few copper pieces (if mommy didn't get them first), and the other is a debauched collection of cultists and slavers of every conceivable race, who only manage to live together without killing each other because their city is the only thing resembling civilization in a wild, hellish wasteland.

Ragadorn, main city of the Wildlands. It's a big commercial hub, but it's also teeming with thieves and cutthroats. The lord of the town and his Secret Police are no better.

Vakovar, in Magador, even more so. At least by the time Lone Wolf visits it, it's full of brigands. The worst part is that the current state of affairs is apparently an improvment over what it was like back when the Darklords were still in power.

Music

In the Alestorm song "Nancy the Tavern Wench", the titular Nancy's tavern is such a hive.

The song "Night City", by The Sword, is about such a place — a metropolis on the dark side of a tidally-locked planet, ruled by slavers and pirates.

The street in the Space song 'Neighbourhood' is definitely one. It's got an Omnicidal Maniac, an Ax-Crazy vicar and a family of criminals, amongst others.

Guns N' Roses' song "Welcome to the Jungle" also depicts a Wretched Hive. In fact, the line "You know where you are? You're in the jungle, baby! You're gonna die!" was said by a cab driver to Axl Rose during a trip to visit a friend.

The world set in The Money Store from Death Grips seems to be this, and at the same time it manages to be a blast to head-bang to.

Mythology and Religion

Hell, when it's not all fire and brimstone, is this in some interpretations, like "eternal separation from God". Believers consider this to be terrifying enough.

Sodom, Gomorrah, and Ninevah as portrayed in The Bible. Sodom and Gomorrah were considered so vile that nothing short of divine obliteration was enough to clean them. This trope was actually subverted in the case of Ninevah. God told Jonah to preach the people there to repent, or else the city would be destroyed in three days. The king of Ninevah saw the error of his ways and told his people to mourn in sackcloth and ashes in hopes that they would be spared. God did not destroy the city, much to Jonah's chagrin. The last part of the book of Jonah is God giving Jonah a big "The Reason You Suck" Speech because he would rather see thousands of people die than come to repentance.

Sodom's population has been estimated by some to be between 600 and 1200 at the time of its destruction. And in all the city, not ten righteous men could be found, thus God destroyed it.

In The Bible, after King Solomon's reign, Israel divides itself North and South, and lots of corruption and idolatry take place. And then it goes From Bad to Worse as they got involved in wars with neighboring nations such as the Assyrians.

Tabletop Games

Warhammer 40K: The Underhives, the lower sections of Hive Cities, are God-Emperor-forsaken places full of mutants, gangers, cultists and very cheap lives. The Gaiden GameNecromunda focuses exclusively in simulating Mob War scenarios among all of these factions, unlike the apocalyptic mass warfare of the regular miniatures game.

And then there's Commorragh, city of the Dark Eldar, whose hats are piracy, hedonism, Cold-Blooded Torture, and in general being the absolute worst of the many factions of the 41st Millenium, which is reallysaying something. Pick any of the above subtropes, and you'll find that Commorragh fits them to a T and turns it all Up to Eleven.

Richard's explanation in Thrill Me of why he and Nathan wouldn't get caught if they murdered a kid is, "there's no shortage of perverts they could blame it on"—basically presenting Chicago as one of these.

Thenardier's Inn in Les Misérables. Bonus points for the fact that Thenardier himself describes it as much in "Master of the House".

Web Original

The fallen space port of Svoboda in Nexus Gate fits the bill. It is controlled by crime syndicates and the playground of criminals of every stripe. Kovolis holds no stake in the port's ground.

Survival of the Fittest has this with Denton, New Jersey. Criminal gangs are everywhere in the city, which is practically run by the most powerful of them instead of by the Mayor himself, as the whole police force is either too corrupt or too inept to do anything. Like any other gangs, they've divided the city up between themselves, and they maintain a tense peace between them, as the bloodshed brought by a gang war is bad for business. Even then, though, shootouts and gang brawls are common, while anyone who sticks their nose in the wrong place turns up dead. This is considered highly unusual in SOTF's world, though, and no other city that has been seen is quite as bad as Denton. This came about as an attempt to justify all the gang members in Pregame, and the city apparently disintegrated into full-scale warfare after v2.

After the events of Extermination in Worm, parts of Brockton Bay have become this. Imagine New Orleans right after Katrina, with super powered criminals and psychos who regularly steal supplies and worse. Then it went From Bad to Worse and the government considers condemning the entire area.

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